USDA Issues Alerts on Fraudulent Organic Certificates

The USDA Ag Marketing Service is alerting the American organic trade about two new fraudulent organic certificates that are making the rounds.

The National Organic Program has received reports about certificates listing two businesses as organic, including Cloud Vaping Industries and the Vietnam Agricultural Biotechnology Joint Stock Company. These certificates falsely represent the businesses as certified organic under the USDA Organic regulations. That is a violation of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.

It’s possible that the fraudulent certificates were created without the business operator’s knowledge or without the certifying agent in the certificate. The posting of the fraudulent certificates doesn’t mean the business or certifying agent were involved in any illegal activity. USDA also says the vigilance of the organic community is very vital to ensuring the integrity of the organic seal.

Any unethical use of organic certificates in order to market, label, or sell non-organic foods as organic can result in a civil penalty of up to $11,000 per violation.